1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to temperature control technology, and more particularly to a method, system and hardware device for temperature control.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The conventional electronic products, such as computer products, generally use active fan heat dissipation mode to dissipate the heat so as to satisfy the system heat dissipation. But the level of system noise may be increased inevitably because of the fan. Typically, the higher the fan speed is, the higher the noise will be. In order to reduce system noise while achieving heat dissipation and to be environment friendly, the conventional computer products, such as desktop computers, generally are designed to control temperature by setting a fan speed control design. With the temperature control design, when system load or environment temperature is high, the fan is controlled to increase the speed to satisfy the system heat dissipation; when system load or environment temperature is low, the fan is controlled in the system for heat dissipation to be low-speed by specific software and hardware design to reduce the noise while satisfying the system heat dissipation.
Currently, typical temperature control methods include:
1) Super I/O or EC method. It controls temperature by temperature detecting circuit, fan speed control circuit and temperature control logic unit integrated with mainboard Super I/O, EC chip or chipset. This method has the advantage of high real time peculiarity. But limited by the performance, it can only achieve simple functions. If the configuration of the product is changed, it is easy to modify the strategy of temperature control.
2) Windows temperature control software control method. Temperature control software accesses temperature detecting circuit, fan speed control circuit integrated with Super I/O chip, EC chip or chipset, to control temperature control logic unit so as to control temperature. This method may make use of high computing capability of Windows software, and perform more complex and intelligent temperature control algorithm, but is affected by operation system reliability. There is the risk of system overheating due to the invalidation of temperature control once the operation system crashes.